Malan takes Cobras to win as rain has final say

[caption id="attachment_236621" align="aligncenter" width="449"] Warriors batsman Gihahn Cloete hits out during his unbeaten 120 against the Cape Cobras in their Momentum One-Day Cup cricket match at St George’s Park yesterday. The Cobras won on the Duckworth-Lewis method after rain stopped play
Picture: Werner Hills[/caption]

Cobras batsman Pieter Malan helped himself to a superb 94 not out to deny the Warriors victory in their final Momentum One-Day Cup round-robin cricket match at St George’s Park last night.

Any hopes the Warriors had of carrying momentum into their semifinal against defending champions Titans early next week were torpedoed by Malan as the visitors won by 10 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis method.

Chasing 265 for victory, the Cobras were 249 for seven off 46.5 overs when rain brought about an end to play. They needed to have reached 239 at that stage of the game to clinch victory. The Cobras will host the Dolphins in the other semi.

Malan anchored the Cobras innings to perfection and shared in a second-wicket partnership of 115 with George Linde, who bludgeoned 74 off 55 balls.

That enabled the visitors to reach 174 for two and they were pretty well set for a comfortable victory. But the Warriors attack never let up and struck some telling blows in the middle-order to make sure there were a few flutters at the end.

Leftarm spinner Jon-Jon Smuts was the best of the Warriors attack, taking three for 46.

Earlier, Gihahn Cloete was the mainstay of the Warriors innings as he scored his second century of the campaign with an unbeaten 120.

The 25-year-old lefthander carried his bat through the innings and it was sorely needed after the Warriors slipped to 60 for four after 18 overs.

He shared in two crucial partnerships that helped the Warriors recover to score 264 for six wickets.

The first was for the fifth wicket with Colin Ackermann, who was good value for his 45 off as many balls. They racked up 77 off 104 deliveries before Ackermann was caught off the bowling of seamer Dayyaan Galiem in a trap set at deep square leg.

That left the Warriors at 137 for five and still needing a substantial contribution in pursuit of setting a decent total.

Clyde Fortuin stepped into the breach and put together a fighting 36 as he and Cloete shared in a stand of 105 in only 75 balls for the sixth wicket.